2011/4/19 Dana Lutenegger <[email protected]>: > Actually, I'm pretty sure that on paper, Chinese law forbids this kind of > copying without attribution. The issue is whether or not it can be enforced > in practice. If it was strictly enforced, a lot of Baidu Baike and Hudong > Wiki would have to be seriously retooled, so I doubt it. However, there have > been recent cases in which copyright infringement claims have been upheld by > Chinese courts, such as the infamous "Starbuck" coffee chain in Shanghai. I > think that our legal counsel should at least be in touch with Baidu on this, > and perhaps try to get them to take down the material, attribute it > properly, or agree to the donation or apology letter ideas.
The Starbuck case would be trademark infringement, not copyright, so isn't a particularly useful precedent. I believe China has similar copyright laws to the rest of the world, though (our article says they have signed several international agreements on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China ). Keep in mind, the WMF isn't the copyright holder, so there is a limit to what the WMF's legal counsel can do. He could have a quiet word, though, which could help. _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
